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A customer is unhappy with the calculation of his 'pay on time' discount and requests a billing adjustment

A customer is unhappy with the calculation of his 'pay on time' discount and requests a billing adjustment

Billing mistakes

Case Number
2017/23667 and 2017/23668

Outcome
Conciliation

The Issue

Mr J was unhappy with the application of the pay on time discounts for his gas and electricity accounts. He acknowledged that a discount had been applied, but believed the amount was less than what he and his retailer agreed when the account was created. Mr J contacted his company to discuss the application of the pay on time discounts. He was advised the billing would be reviewed and that a representative would get back to him.

After receiving no response he contacted EWOV. EWOV raised an Assisted Referral and requested a senior level staff member from the retailer contact Mr J to resolve the complaint. When contacted by his company, he requested a breakdown of his billing to determine whether the discounts had been applied correctly. His company provided him confirmation that, from the creation of his account $801.87 of pay on time discounts had been applied to his account. He believed that the discounts had not been calculated correctly, and that further credit was owed. Mr J contacted EWOV again and we opened an Investigation.

The Investigation

EWOV requested Mr J’s billing and payment history from his company. EWOV’s investigation into the billing determined that the pay on time discounts were applicable to the usage portion only and not the service to property charges, but had still been applied incorrectly. As a result, his company agreed to apply the relevant billing adjustments to his gas and electricity accounts to make up for the billing error. At the time he had an unpaid balance outstanding for his gas and electricity accounts. His company offered to apply an extension to make payment of the remaining balance.

EWOV was able to help Mr J understand that, generally, pay on time discounts do not apply to the total charges on a bill. Mr J understood that while his company had offered a 31% discount, this applied to the usage charges only and not the service to property charges.

The Outcome

Mr J’s company applied additional pay on time discounts for the past two years, totalling $171.55 for his electricity account and $137.46 for his gas account. These discounts were applied upon closure of his complaint and reduced Mr J’s electricity account balance to $484.13 and his gas account balance to $654.73. Mr J agreed to a temporary payment arrangement to pay the remaining arrears over three months.